Patterico's Pontifications

12/7/2007

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Filed under: War — DRJ @ 12:17 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Sixty-six years ago today:

“[Joe] Whitt spoke to a pilots group at Lunken Airport Thursday night and appeared at a memorial event in New Richmond on Sunday. He can talk for hours because every detail of the attack remains fresh in his mind.

He was a seaman first class station on the USS San Francisco when the Japanese planes came. He and his mates concurred that the country was headed for war with Japan, but they figured on meeting their enemy in battle in the Philippines, where the Americans, he thought, would “clobber them in a day or two.”

Instead, he was on the deck of the San Francisco, a cruiser that was docked and getting an overhaul, when the Japanese fighter planes attacked. He and all but five crewmates killed by machine gun fire were among the lucky ones because a construction crane kept the Japanese bombers from getting close enough for good shots.

“We put World War I helmets on our heads. The planes were so low you could almost hit them with a potato,” he said.

Armed with a rifle, he shot at the planes as they passed by. “I had a view of the whole operation in the harbor. Big billows of black smoke and sound of guns firing. I never did see a plane dive straight down but they would come in on a heavy slant. They would come in real fast and drop those bombs and then they would pull up and roll over on a loop. The ones that dropped the big shells came in higher up,” he said.

“I saw the Arizona as she blew up. It was just a tremendous explosion,” he said, referring to the battleship that sank in the harbor, taking 1,177 crew members to a watery grave.

He would spend another five years in the Navy, mostly as a machine gunner. Whitt fought in the south and north Pacific, including battles in the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. “I’m one of the few men who heard the first and last shots of the war,” he said.”

Whitt knows Americans won’t remember Pearl Harbor the way he does but he hopes we remember the heroes: “The heroes were the men that we buried at sea. The thousands, and thousands killed in battle.”

— DRJ

6 Responses to “Remembering Pearl Harbor”

  1. It’s nice to see this here.

    TC (1cf350)

  2. But of course, TC. Never forget.

    DRJ (a6fcd2)

  3. To all those who serve…and gave the ultimate sacrifice…”Semper Fi”….

    reff (99666d)

  4. Hear, hear!

    Christoph (92b8f7)

  5. “The heroes were the men that we buried at sea. The thousands, and thousands killed in battle.”….A common refrain from those whom have served. Perhaps the truest testimony of someone who has “been there”. I thank them, and honor their sacrifice. Too many today don’t understand or respect those efforts, a sad commentary.

    Edward Lunny (85f233)

  6. What japan was realy after was the aircraft carriers and they were all out to sea at the time

    krazy kagu (9baf51)


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